Online Learning Update

by DOUGLAS BELKIN and CAROLINE PORTER, Wall Street Journal
Big employers such as AT&T Inc. and Google Inc. are helping to design and fund the latest round of low-cost online courses, a development that providers say will open the door for students to earn inexpensive credentials with real value in the job market. New niche certifications being offered by providers of massive open online courses, or MOOCs, are aimed at satisfying employers’ specific needs. Available at a fraction of the cost of a four-year degree, they represent the latest crack in the monopoly traditional universities have in credentialing higher education. “The common denominator [among the new MOOC certification programs] is that there really is an interest in finding credentials that don’t require a student to buy the entire degree,” said Sebastian Thrun, the Stanford University computer-science professor who co-founded Udacity, a MOOC with 1.6 million enrolled students in 200 countries. “This is really democratizing education at its best.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324807704579087840126695698.html

by Alan Finder, NY Times

MOOCs have evolved since beginning in recent years, enthusiasts expect many more changes. From an early focus on technical and scientific courses, for instance, offerings now include the humanities and social sciences. While there are some significant differences among the major MOOC Web sites, they share several main elements. Courses are available to anyone with access to the Internet. They are free, and students receive a certificate of completion at the end. With rare exceptions, you cannot earn college credit for taking one of these courses, at least for now. “For a decade, people have been asking, ‘How does the Internet change higher education,’ ” said Edward B. Rock, a law professor at the University of Pennsylvania who is the institution’s senior adviser on open course initiatives. “This is the beginning. It opens up all sorts of possibilities.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/26/technology/personaltech/a-surge-in-growth-for-a-new-kind-of-online-course.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

By Katie Lepi, Edudemic

Lots of different types of schools offer online programs. Some of these schools are traditional brick and mortar schools that offer online programs (or even blended programs with some in class time and some online time) in addition to their traditional classroom based courses. Other schools only offer online options. Currently it seems as though your best bet for an affordable degree is at a brick and mortar school that offers an online / distance degree. The Harvard University Extension School is probably the best example of this. You can get a Harvard degree thanks to their flexible program. You have to attend about a quarter of the courses in person but the rest can be done remotely. There’s a lot of work and you have to be accepted. But it’s probably your best bet right now.

http://www.edudemic.com/affordable-online-colleges/

by Job Journal

The skills gap between American workers and an evolving workplace has been widely reported. Employers with job openings that often require up-to-date education and training are having trouble finding qualified candidates. In fact, nearly four in ten US employers report having difficulty finding staff with the appropriate skills, according to the Manpower Group’s annual Talent Shortage Survey. If you are trying to find work or get ahead in your career, you may be aware of instances when your own lack of a particular skill proved detrimental. Chances are you’ve seen some attractive job opportunities, but didn’t consider them attainable because of the time and expense required to get the necessary education and training. But advances in online education are dramatically reducing the cost of coursework and providing timesaving shortcuts to becoming someone with the qualifications that today’s employers are desperate to find.

http://www.jobjournal.com/thisweek.asp?artid=3354

by Cliff Peale, Cincinnati.com

Miami University will invest $3.5 million into new online courses, but it hopes to earn that money back within six years and reap annual profits of $1 million within a decade. Some of the spending is defensive, trying to recapture hundreds of Miami students who take online courses for credit elsewhere because they are less expensive and often less challenging. But the plan outlined by Provost Bobby Gempesaw also includes luring new students with certificate and graduate programs in high-demand areas such as instructional design, gerontology and speech pathology. “We need to be strategic, focusing on targeted markets, instead of what others are doing, creating online courses that anyone can take,” Gempesaw said.

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20130924/NEWS/309240055/Miami-U-pushes-into-online-learning?nclick_check=1

by Meaghan Sands, Poly Post

Beginning this fall quarter, students will now be able to take fully online courses through other California State Universities. According to Claudia Pinter-Lucke, associate provost for the division of academic affairs, this is part of the Intrasystem Concurrent Enrollment Online Course Program, a platform promoted through the Chancellor’s Office. This program has been in effect for a while; it just did not include the online aspect. The online program was organized very quickly and CSU campuses received requests to join the program in April and May of this year. According to the Academic Senate CSU report, while Intrasystem Concurrent enrollment has existed for approximately 40 years, the planned expansion of this opportunity via online courses has generated new interest.

http://www.thepolypost.com/news/csu-s-offer-online-classes/article_8954292c-2586-11e3-a5fa-001a4bcf6878.html

by Digital Journal
EdX, the not-for-profit online learning initiative, has announced its Fall 2013 courses from colleges and universities around the world, members of the xConsortium. Now in its second year, edX has expanded its online courses to include a variety of subjects from Behavioral Economics to Poetry in America, all taught by experts in their fields. Students who complete a course can earn a resume-boosting Certificate of Achievement through edX to show competency in course concepts. Many college students take edX courses along with their on-campus studies to supplement class teachings, prepare them for upcoming classes or to explore new subjects in a risk-free, online environment.

http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1488874

by Inside Higher Ed

Bruce N. Chaloux, executive director and chief executive officer of the Sloan Consortium and a longtime leader in the online learning world, died suddenly over the weekend. Chaloux took the reins at Sloan, an association of professionals and institutions involved in digital education, in March 2012. Before that, he directed the Southern Regional Education Board’s Electronic Campus, a market place of more than 10,000 digital courses, and previously worked at Virginia Tech and Castleton State College in Vermont. “It is impossible to adequately put into words what Bruce Chaloux meant personally and professionally to each of us,” said Meg Benke, Sloan’s president and provost and vice president for academic affairs at Empire State College. “He was more than the energetic CEO of our Consortium. He was our good-humored, kind and generous friend. He was an optimistic and dedicated leader who spent his last days doing what he loved: working diligently for online and adult learning opportunities here and around the world. His accomplishments are many, his networks extensive, and his unfinished business is still at hand.”

ED Note: Bruce Chaloux was a force for good, for vision and for progress in higher education. We all miss him deeply.

http://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2013/10/01/bruce-chaloux-online-learning-leader-dies-suddenly

by Claire Shaw, the Guardian

The launch of the UK’s biggest online university venture has the potential to “revolutionise conventional models of formal education” and keep the UK ahead in the global race to deliver the best education, says universities minister David Willetts. The FutureLearn project will see more than 20 institutions enter the global market to offer massive open online courses, or Moocs. Until now, the US has led the way in the creation of Moocs, with companies including Coursera, edX, and Udacity catering to an estimated 3 million learners worldwide with hundreds of courses from a range of top institutions.

http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/2013/sep/18/futurelearn-open-university-courses-launch

by Selena Larson, ReadWrite

Why pay thousands of dollars to sit in a stuffy university lecture hall as a professor drones away in front of bored students when you could instead take some of the world’s greatest courses online? For free? A handful of startups and university-backed nonprofits are starting to deliver on that proposition—one that could upend higher education, not to mention the plans of millions of students who are aiming to position themselves for employment in today’s digital economy. Of course, the trend is still in its infancy, with big challenges ahead where student retention, university cooperation and business models are concerned. But proponents of the online-education revolution aren’t shy about their ambitions. Sebastian Thrun, a former Stanford professor who co-founded the startup Udacity two years ago, reportedly believes that in 50 years, there will only be 10 institutions in the world providing higher education—with Udacity, of course, potentially one of them.

http://readwrite.com/2013/09/23/university-lecture-mooc

by Carla Rivera, LA Times

The governor said demands on the system required innovative thinking such as greater use of online classes that could accommodate greater numbers of students at a lower cost. Part of his multi-year funding plan for Cal State and the University of California included $10 million each this year to develop new learning technologies, including online classes. But several trustees expressed frustration at the pace of efforts to develop online classes that model MOOCs — massive open online courses — which can enroll hundreds of students. The discussion came during a review of several initiatives designed to identify classes that are most in demand or needed for degrees but often stymie students because of high failure rates or because too few of the classes are available, among other issues.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-brown-warns-cal-state-about-adding-many-new-students-and-classes-20130924,0,542278.story